Software as a Service (SaaS) is changing the way we do business by optimizing interactions and simplifying analytics. The best SaaS companies are revolutionizing the landscape of commerce and doing it at an incredible speed.

We will look at some of the most forward thinking and fastest growing SaaS companies that are at the forefront of innovation and AI implementation.

Most of these companies are still private but have gained the trust of prominent venture capital firms. A few have gone public in recent years but have kept their innovative edge and are still growing at an incredible pace.

We have used five primary criteria to compile our list of SaaS companies – company growth, number of employees, number of subscribers, venture capital funding, and latest valuation. Most of the companies that made our cut are still privately held and are inching towards an IPO.

HubSpot was founded in 2006 and has raised $100 million in six funding rounds. The company is led by Brian Halligan who is considered an absolute thought leader in digital marketing.

The HubSpot platform is now known as the industry standard when it comes to managing inbound marketing campaigns. The SaaS company offers a free CRM tool, marketing, and sales integrated platforms that streamline lead nurture at every step of the consumer journey. HubSpot went public in 2014 and is still growing strong.

The company employs 2,140 employees, has grown its revenue year-over-year by 49% in 2016. It has an impeccable business model and is a leader in the content marketing realm, which continues to to grow exponentially.

Slack is one of the fastest growing SaaS startups leading the pack of unicorns in the software space.

The widely-used collaboration platform is still private and has raised $790 million in funding, including a brand new round of $250 million led by Softbank in September, 2017. This latest round puts Slack’s valuation at a jaw-dropping $5.1 billion.

At the time of this writing, Slack has an impressive 6 million+ users from enterprises of all sizes and has reached over $200 million in annual revenue.

Reports have also suggested that both Amazon and Microsoft have considered acquiring Slack at $9 and $8 billion price tags respectively.

Its incredible growth is inherited in meeting the need for more streamlined team communication and removing the clutter and formality from digital messaging. The productivity platform has also just added a new feature allowing companies to create channels that employees from multiple organizations can use.

What sets this popular tool apart from its competition (i.e. Skype) is its willingness to play nicely with others. Slack’s incredible flexibility makes it easy for other platforms to integrate seamlessly, and constantly refines its features.

Slack was founded by Stewart Butterfield in 2009 and owes its success to forward thinking user experience design that helps teams be more productive. This fast-growing SaaS company has 780 employees and is bound to opt for an IPO soon.

The company’s expertise is backed by 10 years of experience in web development and survey methodology. The helpful survey tool boasts a huge following including most of the companies in the Fortune 500. The platform supports 17 languages and is growing internationally with 700 employees and counting.

GitHub is a developers’ platform that allows coders and teams to collaborate and review projects. The site has hosted nearly 50 million projects and has grown to 700 employees. The universal platform was founded in 2008 and has grown exponentially ever since.

This impressive SaaS company has raised $350 million in venture capital in three rounds and is valued at $2 billion.

Over 12 million people use GitHub to collaborate on projects. Developers can build amazing things while working with co-workers, friends, or complete strangers. This popular site is now considered the largest code host in the world.

Domo was founded by serial entrepreneur Josh James, who serves as a CEO. The SaaS company has created a flexible analytics platform that provides better access to data about their customers’ own companies, empowering their decisionmakers to become better informed and effective.

Zendesk offers multi-channel customer service solutions, including live chat, self-service, and integrated call center software. Clients can also manage marketing campaigns and analyze the data in one place. The company was founded in 2007 and went public in 2014, boasting a $3 billion market cap, making it one of the fastest growing SaaS companies.

Zendesk has 1,810 employees and its revenue has grown 41.5% year-over-year in 2016.

The help desk platform hosts a constellation of products that help organizations understand their customers better, improve communications, and smooth over consumer touch points.

Eventbrite allows anyone hosting an event to sell tickets and manage registrations. It is the world’s largest self-service platform for live experiences and powers over 2 million events per year.

The company was co-founded and is run by Julia Hartz and has raised $200 million in venture capital, putting its valuation at $1 billion.

Eventbrite is a global player with 630 employees and offices in eight countries. Its success rests partly on Eventbrite Spectrum, an open API platform, which provides easy integrations with over 170 industry leading technology platforms.

New Relic was founded in 2008 by Lew Cirne, a software engineer and veteran entrepreneur. This performance monitoring company has grown to 1,210 employees and serves over 15,000 businesses with digital intelligence products, including simulations that catch problems early on, insight into application performance, and detailed metrics.

New Relic offers full-stack visibility and analytics, providing key insights into performance in order to improve companies’ digital touch points.

Businesses trust New Relic to find issues in their applications and infrastructure performance. The SaaS company went public in 2014, has a 2.5-billion market cap, and has reported 57% year-over-year revenue growth for 2016.

Inside Sales is a sales acceleration platform founded by David Elkington, a former investment banker turned computer scientist. David has raised $250 million from key investors including Microsoft and Salesforce.

The company boasts 550 employees and is trusted by leading brands to streamline their sales funnel. The platform uses machine learning to improve performance, and boost conversions.

Anaplan was founded in 2006 and has grown to 720 employees with offices in 16 countries. The planning platform has 150 industry-leading partners and offers real time planning and forecasting. Its cloud-based ecosystem helps businesses make better decisions and improve the workflow of planning processes.

This process-scaling company offers an integrated solution that connects data and people in the planning process into one comprehensive platform, making it one of the fastest growing SaaS companies.

Anaplan has raised $240 million in funding and is trusted by big players like Intel and HP.
Based on company growth, venture capital funding, and latest valuation, these SaaS companies have proven to be the movers and shakers of the tech world and we can only expect more innovation from them. Their success is the product of addressing relevant market needs and using technology as well as determination to make the world a better, faster, and more productive place.
The forward thinking founders of these companies have introduced innovative and creative products and services that are being adopted by ever more organizations.

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Milen Vasilev

Milen is a digital content writer and marketing specialist, who writes about tech, entrepreneurship, and ecommerce. He loves to travel, play the piano, and perfect his headstand. He believes words are a powerful weapon and can make a dent in the universe.